Featured Help w/ID Small Antique Asian(Chinese?) Art Table

hi everyone. i just found this at a local Goodwill here in Sacramento. i walked by it a couple of times, not really noticing it. Then on the third pass, it started to call out to me. i thought it was some fake piece made to look old, but as i began examining it more closely i realized this is a real, completely hand-made little table. it stands about 30 inches in height. all of the artwork on the separate top is hand-painted and there's no screws to be found in the construction. what is really amazing is the craquelure and wear to the piece. the panel on which the painted art is located looks like it could be VERY old, but i'm really not certain. it looks like it has had several coats of lacquer applied to the top as well as the sides of the top tray. i'm hoping someone here has some background in antique Asian furniture. there were a lot of Chinese people in this area in the 19th century, of course. i'm guessing it's a piece of home made furniture that's made from, perhaps, older pieces. but i know nothing. any help, or insights will be greatly appreciated...thanks

 

It appears to have good age, an' the presence of a very high 19th C Chinese population in the Central Valley adds strongly to the probability of it being a genuine ethnic antique...as does the lack of modern fasteners. A very nice piece of furniture, Jim!

 

thank you for your input. i'm certain that it's old. among the problems in researching this piece is, what to call it. you've used the term "ethnic antique," but i've tried searching under "antique Chinese immigrant" and only a little shows up. i realize this is probably a somewhat esoteric line of antiques, but it is analogous to, for instance, Norwegian antique furniture.

 

I don't know anything about Norwegian...anything, sorry.

 

In the basic sense, it is a Chinese painted tray table. Searching those terms, I find some examples but none quite like this. Most of what I am seeing are of the Chinese Chippendale type. A visual search doesn't do much better. Makes me question whether it is really Chinese. Whithout anything else to go on, I am going to assume it is.

I do think this has some age to it. Whether or not it is truly antique, hard to say. The handmade aspect of it does not preclude it from being late 20th century. The painted top is certainly different and I get an almost folk sense about it. It is not your usual dragons or scenic renditions usually seen on painted furniture.

 

I did an image search looking for a table with the exact same legs and feet. I think this matches.

It's a solid top table, with clipped corners, no lift out tea tray.

I can't vouch for the description at this link but it might give you some keywords and ideas for further searches.


https://www.pamono.com/antique-victorian-chinese-chinoiserie-hand-painted-green-side-table-1880s

 

Not really the same. Probably Western made vs. Asian for the OP's. Spade foot vs. Chinese foot, etc.

 

hi, thank you all for you help. yes, it has occurred to me that it isn't Chinese. but, if you examine the construction at the corners, there's some amazing craftsmanship in this piece. note the interior corners are rounded. that 90 degree seam along the exterior in the pic is the only one that's cracked open to where you can see it, the other seams are still as tight as the day it was made. and yet the legs are squared along the interior. it's consistent with other Chinese pieces i've looked at up close through the years. they were able to put together joints every bit as strong as anything made today with no screws and it's almost like a jigsaw puzzle. i believe this tabe was made here in California, but made by someone trained in the Chinese methods of furniture making. my guess is the table portion could be early 20th century, but the tray portion looks and feels older. perhaps the table was constructed to keep the tray as an heirloom or keepsake. the tray is constructed with nails at the corners and as you can see, is braced at two corners as well. also, the overall appearance isn't as elegant as the table. also, the fit between the tray and the table is extremely tight. there's probably less than a 16th of an inch in wiggle room. i wish you could see the surface in person. i think these close-ups give a sense of the age and wear to the painted surface. the other thing that makes me think it's Chinese is, the vases look Chinese. anyway, thank you all for looking.

 

Sorry to say that the design looks to me to be contemporary rather than traditional Chinese. All of the 19th century Chinese furniture I have seen in homes, temples, etc., is relatively simple in design, perhaps with some elaborate wood carving as decoration, but in one color only, black or brown, of stained or painted wood.

 

I'm going to agree. To my eye, the base and tray appear to be a marriage.

Debora

 

yes, that's what i believe they are as well. i think this is a marriage of sorts. i also think there's a fundamental misunderstanding here as well. when i use the term "Chinese," to describe this table, i'm not talking about furniture made in China. i'm talking, in this case about a piece of furniture that was, i believe, made by a Chinese immigrant living here in California in the 19th or possibly early 20th century. i don't know what the term for this is, but it's a very specific sub-genre of furniture that i've come across in this area (Sacramento) before. at first glance it looks like old, very cheaply made furniture with an ethnic feel to it, definitely not manufactured. on closer examination it's always very utilitarian furniture that looks to have been made from recycled pieces of wood as well as other materials. these people were very poor and completely ostracized by the larger community here in California. this was the era of the Chinese Exclusion Act and huge racist animosity. anyway, that's where i believe this piece originated. i was hoping to find someone on this forum that might know more about this specific sub-genre. i guess you could call it Chinese immigrant ethnic furniture or hobo furniture.

 

I am confused by the texture of the painted surface on the tray. It is not crazed, or alligatored, like you may find on objects with multiple or incompatible layers of paint and varnish. For want of a better term, it appears crusty. And, from your photos, it looks like the paint was applied on top of the rough surface, with the high points being rubbed away. Granted, I am not familiar with the immigrant tradition in California, but compare the surface to these similar trays -

https://feahome.com/products/vintage-chinese-hand-painted-ornate-tray

https://admiraltyantiques.com.au/chinese-antique-red-painted-tray.html

https://feahome.com/products/chinese-wooden-tray

https://boheme-living.com/en/antique-wooden-tray-china-25x24.html

https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/f...hand-painted-wood-serving-tray/id-f_15601742/

 

hi, i've looked at all of those trays. it's one of the things that i'm hoping to learn more about here. those all appear to have paint applied directly to a wood surface. on my piece it looks like some other material was applied to the wood surface and then the paint. this other material, maybe tar or some other resin like substance is what is actually creating the craquelure effect. i will say, the actual art on some of those surfaces is more similar stylistically(at least in some respects) to mine than many of the Chinese import pieces i've seen. more like folk art.

 

I don't think that would be a typical way to prepare a surface for painting, which would make me worry that it was some sort of "antiquing" process to make it look older. Genuine signs of age need to make sense.

 

I am by no means an expert on Chinese or Chinese-style furniture. But I have studied the history of the Chinese in America and I have personal experience as the descendant of pioneer Chinese immigrants who came to CA from the middle of the 19th century to the last quarter of the 19th century. I have seen a lot of furniture used by Chinese immigrants from this period, both in person and in photographs. For a number of reasons, this particular piece does not strike me as something created by one of the early immigrants. First, there were not many skilled furniture makers or artists who came from China during this time; most of the men came from poor farming families and worked as unskilled laborers, as you indicate. Second, if Chinese were too poor to buy furniture and had no choice but to make their own, I think the furniture would be more simple, that is, without the adornment pictured. Third, the brightly-colored design itself is not at all traditional and seems too contemporary for something coming from this period.

 

To greatly simplify... They came to California in the 1800s to build the railroads. Only men. Without women and children. They didn't establish households.

Debora

 

I could be wrong but the style doesn’t scream Chinese. If anything, it looks more South American in its style.

 

i feel as if, at this point i need to apologize. i certainly wasn't trying to upset anyone. the whole Chinese thing actually came about because that's what showed up when i first applied Google Lens at the thriftstore where i bought this. in my mind, at least, it explains some of the obvious incongruities here ie. the rather finely made base table and the seemingly primitive painted tray. but let me say, i don't know what this is. i've contacted a local appraiser and auctioneer to see if he's interested in looking at it. he's one of the appraisers on Antiques Roadshow. all i know for certain is this is an odd little side table that i bought in a Goodwill for $12.99. the other thing that seems apparent is, if it is fake, someone put an awful lot of time and effort into it.

 

For what it's worth, these are the only similar painted wood items I could find on the entire internet. A butterfly shaped box and a rectangle painted box with similar motifs. An assortment of Chinese vases and vessels. One the painted objects looks like a tray table.

I didn't bookmark the link, but it can probably be found easily with a reverse image search.

Somebody else might be able to look at these and build on it.



EDIT: To add a picture of another painted box. Chinese vase with artists tools and a Chinese bowl with fruit.

 

thank you. i wasn't seeing anything similar in any of my searches.